From one extreme to another, there isn’t much Ryan Phillips hasn’t gone through with the B.C. Lions.

He’s won Grey Cups. He’s also been part of blowout playoff losses that have ushered in coaching changes and set the franchise back both in terms of the on-field product and with the paying customer. One extreme manifests into the golden standard of the CFL. The other can make that standard seem agonizingly far away.

“My first few years, we were always the most dominant. I’ll tell you, my first four or five years, I was spoiled,” said Phillips on Tuesday. “Sometimes, if we won 11 games (in a season), it was a down year. If we weren’t in first place, it was a down year. If we weren’t in the West final, we were looked at as, ‘What’s going on? Are they now starting to plummet?’”

The Lions did eventually plummet.

A year ago, they were about to lose the West semifinal to the Calgary Stampeders. They didn’t know it yet, but defeat to a superior ball club was imminent, no matter what Andrew Harris — now with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — said or how peeved he got with TSN prognosticators for dismissing the chances of Jeff Tedford’s group days in advance of its playoff showdown in Calgary.

Another playoff defeat. More change. This time, Wally Buono decided to return to coaching, after watching the last four years of disappointment from a different vantage point. The Lions began this season as a complete wild card.

At the beginning of the season such a drastic turnaround is the last thing even Phillips would’ve predicted. From 7-11 and one-and-done in the playoffs, B.C. transformed into a 12-6 team, one that believes it’s peaking at the right time as it prepares for its post-season meeting with the Bombers at home Sunday.

The Bombers beat the Lions in consecutive weeks in October. The winner faces the Stampeders in the West final, with a spot in the Cup at stake.

“For me to come out and say for sure that we were going to win 12 games — I couldn’t honestly say that,” said Phillips.

The Leos were hardly lacking in the entertainment department this season and the play of second-year quarterback Jonathon Jennings is one of the reasons why.

But while the Lions forged a successful regular season, beating up on East Division opponents and the West Division’s weakest link in Saskatchewan, the Stamps became the runaway candidate for the best team in the league. Every other team looked more pretender than contender.

Even as recently as the middle of October, the Lions were forced to answer for a pair of mistake-riddled losses to the Bombers, putting their chances of a home playoff date in jeopardy.

There were warts, such as turnovers, showing in their game and it looked as if the growth this team experienced throughout the season may be stunted by a lack of simple fundamentals at the worst possible time. They promptly responded with three straight wins, taking advantage of a beleaguered Saskatchewan Roughriders team in the end, and securing home-field advantage for Sunday’s game.

“The last three or four games have definitely been an indication of the team we can be. That’s even with the mistakes we’ve made,” said Phillips. “In the playoffs, you don’t get that second-chance opportunity.”

Phillips has been fortunate enough to get multiple opportunities at the Cup. But he’s 33 years old, with 212 games to his credit. He knows time is limited and very few chances remain for him to get another crack at one.

He admitted that last year, after another losing season, uncertainty about his playing career crept into his mind. That’s one extreme. His focus has since shifted to another.

“You’re trying to be optimistic about your chances of playing football again — based off of last year. When you’re not winning, guys are starting to think about maybe going in another direction, of rebuilding, and sometimes you’re not a part of those plans,” he said. “That’s something you take into account every single off-season. That’s something I have to evaluate every single year. I know I’m not getting younger. I’m not 22 years old. As much as I feel I can run like one, I’m still not. With that being said, you’re just hoping to get that opportunity again.”

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